Their report is inaccurate at least as far as the KPW goes: it is listed at $119 with Special offers and $139 without.
I'd take the rest of it with a grain of salt for a while. A lot of things with the new FIRE's are undetermined. Like FIRE HD9 battery life.

If you mean the SO's on the eInk Kindles then no. They are used for the "screen saver"/sleep screen and as a small banner at the bottom of the home screen and that's it. You never see them when actually reading or anything like that.

The ads on the Fire will be on the lock screen (and on a corner of the home page?). But here's what I wonder: can you opt out of the ads for $20, as on the e-ink Kindles? There doesn't seem to be any way to do that (or higher-priced ad-free models), which is pretty crappy, no?

The new Kindle Paperwhites are $119 with SO and $139 w/o. You will see this price when ordering one. The new Fires each have Special Offers. I can say that these SOs were very popular for the early Kindles. I don't know if they will be the same quality, but a lot of people offset the entire price of the Kindles with the money saved on these offers. Of course, some would question would someone have purchased the products in the first place if the ads did not run on the device. These offers are unobtrusive in what you use the device for and are tucked very neatly out of the way.

I can say that these SOs were very popular for the early Kindles. I don't know if they will be the same quality, but a lot of people offset the entire price of the Kindles with the money saved on these offers. Of course, some would question would someone have purchased the products in the first place if the ads did not run on the device.

I saved enough money from those early offers to pay for my Kindle twice. And I only counted offers for items I planned on buying anyway.